The expected announcement, aimed in particular at preventing vaping among young people, is finally mixed. Donald Trump’s government announced on Thursday January 2 that it will soon ban most flavored cartridges of electronic cigarettes, without going as far as the total ban promised in September.
The National Agency for Medicines and Food, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has authority over the tobacco market, has announced that e-cigarettes using cartridges with aromas other than tobacco and menthol would be prohibited. the sale from the beginning of February, unless they have obtained an authorization from the FDA.
Companies that do not stop manufacturing, distributing and selling these electronic cigarettes within 30 days are exposed to measures by the Food and Drug Administration, said the U.S. Department of Health (HHS, for Health and Human Services).
"The United States has never seen an epidemic of product use grow as rapidly as our current epidemic of use of electronic cigarettes among youth"said the health secretary. "The HHS takes a comprehensive and aggressive approach to enforcing the law passed by Congress, under which no electronic cigarettes are currently on the market legally", he added.
The legal age raised
In September, health secretary Alex Azar announced that all flavors, including menthol, would be banned. The tobacco and vaping industry had mobilized all autumn to pressure Donald Trump to reverse this commitment, arguing the potential cost of jobs in the sector, and in votes during the presidential election of November.
Congress passed a law at the end of December raising the legal age from 18 to 21 to purchase vaping products, which will come into effect after summer. The compromise announced Thursday by the FDA will initially leave on the market e-cigarettes which are not based on cartridges, and which are sold mainly in specialized stores, vape shops.
This decision by the federal authorities comes after the death of 55 people in recent months in the United States from a lung disease probably linked to vaping.
